Generaal Diemont

Generaal Diemont was a Dutch generaal of the Indische leger who served as bevelhebber in Atjeh under whose administration the sea-expedition to the mouth of the Kroeng Raya was undertaken by kolonel van der Heijden in 1876. In Borel’s account he appears principally as the superior officer under whom the eastern, sea-borne half of generaal Pel’s secret afsluitingslinie was attempted — and failed of its object.

The Kroeng Raya Sea-Expedition

Pel’s plan, conceived at his Buitenzorg planning session of July 1875 and endorsed by gouverneur-generaal van Lansberge, had been to extend the Dutch line from the mouth of the Kroeng Raba on the west coast — already reached by the column that marched through the Blang Kalla kloof on 15 January 1876 — to the mouth of the Kroeng Raya on the north coast, so closing Atjeh from the sea. After Pel’s sudden death at Lamjoeng on 24 February 1876 and the reversion of his successor Wiggers van Kerchem to the afwachtende houding, the closure was to be attempted from the sea. Under Diemont’s bestuur Van der Heijden debarkeerde a Dutch force at the mouth of the Kroeng Raya; the troops, Borel concedes, dapper gestreden have. But the tocht “leidde tot geene bevredigende uitkomst,” and it did not link up with the Tongah–Kwala Gigieng line that lt.-kol. Engel had reached on 26 February 1876.

Significance

The failure of the Kroeng Raya expedition under Diemont meant that the Pel plan was never fully executed. The western end of the line at Loenga on the Kroeng Raba was held, and the north-eastern end at Kwala Gigieng was secured by Engel’s post and by the island post at Kota Pohama in the Gigieng lagune, but the long stretch of coast between them — including the mouth of the Kroeng Tjoet, which the Atjehneezen used as a contraband supply channel to the XXVI Moekims — remained only partially closed. Borel’s broader judgement falls not on Diemont personally but on the afwachtende system under which, after Pel’s death, every opportunity to complete the closure was allowed to slip.

Account from De onderwerping van Atjeh (Van Heutsz, 1893)

In the 1893 tract De onderwerping van Atjeh, Van Heutsz places Diemont as the fourth name in his catalogue of the eleven Governors of Atjeh — van Swieten, Pel, Wiggers van Kerchem, Diemont, van der Heijden, Pruijs van der Hoeven, Laging Tobias, Demmeni, van Teijn, Pompe van Meerdervoort, Deijkerhof — and the Governor who, within days of his November 1876 appointment, sent the military expedition that forced Simpang Olim and Tandjong Semantoh to recognise Dutch sovereignty, and who, in the beginning of 1877, put the last hand to the Pel plan’s coastal line before being evacuated sick on 30 June 1877 and ceding the governorship to kolonel K. van der Heijden.

Succession of Wiggers van Kerchem (November 1876)

Diemont’s appointment was the direct consequence of the dismissal of his predecessor. Generaal-Majoor Wiggers van Kerchem had refused to send Dutch troops to the support of Kerti in its war with Simpang Olim and Tandjong Semantoh, preferring to arm and subsidise Tekoe Moeda Augkasa of Merbou as a proxy. Van Lansberge, who “door het met de wapenen dwingen van erkenning onzer souvereiniteit, hoopte de voor die weerspannige staatjes nog steeds voortdurende dure blokkade te kunnen opheffen” (by forcing recognition of our sovereignty with weapons, hoped to be able to lift the costly blockade that had been continuously maintained against those recalcitrant statelets), replaced Wiggers van Kerchem with Diemont precisely so that the armed coercion could be carried out. Van Heutsz records the succession in one sentence that fixes both the dismissal and the appointment:

“De Gouverneur-Generaal echter, die, door het met de wapenen dwingen van erkenning onzer souvereiniteit, hoopte de voor die weerspannige staatjes nog steeds voortdurende dure blokkade te kunnen opheffen, liet toen den Generaal Wiggers van Kerchem vervangen door den Generaal Diemont, die, onmiddelljkk na zijn op- treden in November 1876, door het zenden van eene militaire expeditie, Simpang Olim en Tandjong Semantoh, tot erkenning van onze souvereiniteit dwong en tot regeling van de destursaangllgenneeenn daar een controleur plaatste, gedekt en gesteund door een militaire bezetting.” — The Governor-General, however, who, by forcing recognition of our sovereignty with weapons, hoped to be able to lift the costly blockade maintained against those recalcitrant statelets, then had Generaal Wiggers van Kerchem replaced by Generaal Diemont, who, immediately upon taking office in November 1876, by sending a military expedition, forced Simpang Olim and Tandjong Semantoh to recognise our sovereignty and to regulate their relations, placing a controleur there, covered and supported by a military garrison.

Diemont’s first act as Governor was thus the expedition against Simpang Olim and Tandjong Semantoh — the very operation Wiggers van Kerchem had declined to undertake. The statelets were forced to recognise Dutch sovereignty; a controleur was installed to regulate their affairs, supported by a military garrison.

The completion of Pel’s plan (early 1877)

Diemont’s second achievement as Governor was the completion of the Pel plan’s coastal line in the beginning of 1877. Pel had died in the early months of 1876, before his plan — the occupation of the entire coastal strip of Groot-Atjeh from Kroeng Raja to Kroeng Raba and the closing of the five kwala’s (Loé, Gighen, Atjeh, Tjangkoel and Pantjoer) — had been fully carried out. Van Heutsz’s verdict on the strategic delay between Pel’s death and the plan’s completion under Diemont is the closest he comes to a measured assessment of Wiggers van Kerchem’s interregnum:

“Door ‘s Generaals ontijdigen dood evenwel, kwam er groote vertraging in de uitvoering van zijn plan, waaraan wat Groot-Atjeh betreft, eerst de laatste hand werd gelegd in het begin van 1877 onder Generaal Diemont, terwijl op de kusten geen posten werden opgericht te Gighen en te Melaboeh, zooals in het plan lag.” — Through the general’s untimely death, however, great delay entered the execution of his plan, to which, as regards Groot-Atjeh, the last hand was only laid in the beginning of 1877 under Generaal Diemont, while on the coasts no posts were erected at Gighen and at Melaboeh, as the plan had called for.

The plan was substantially complete by February 1877 — “Men dacht toen nog altijd, dat het door het bezetten van Koeala Loé aan den vijand te Groot-Atjeh zoo goed als onmogelijk was geworden” (it was still thought then, that by the occupation of Koeala Loé it had become virtually impossible for the enemy in Groot-Atjeh to obtain supplies) — but the posts that had been planned for Gighen on the Noordkust and Melaboeh on the Westkust were never established under Diemont’s governorship. The Pel plan’s coastal line was complete in its essentials; it was not complete in its details.

The 1877 strategic inheritance

Diemont’s governorship fell in the same months as G.-G. van Lansberge’s verzoeningspolitiek (conciliation policy) of March 1877 — the policy of conciliation in Groot-Atjeh combined with armed coercion in the recalcitrant Onderhoorigheden. Van Heutsz summarises the hybrid policy that Diemont was sent to execute: “Het stelsel: Verzoenende politiek op Groot-Atjeh en in de Onderhoorigheden, die ons gezag erkend hadden en met ons bevriend waren; door gewapend optreden dwingen tot onderwerping van de nog weerspannige Onderhoorigheden” — The system: conciliatory politics in Groot-Atjeh and in the Onderhoorigheden that had recognised our authority and were friendly to us; by armed intervention to force the submission of the still-recalcitrant Onderhoorigheden. The policy opened with the Telok-Kroet negotiations of Panglima Polem and Toekoe Moeda Baid — negotiations Van Heutsz reads as insincere, designed only “om tijd te winnen” (to gain time) — and produced, in October 1877, van Lansberge’s letter to the Governor of Atjeh announcing that “Naar alle kenteekenen te oordeelen, is in de Atjehsche zaak thans een belangrijk keerpunt bereikt” (Judging by all signs, an important turning-point has now been reached in the Atjeh affair). The “keerpunt” proved illusory: the submissions of Panglima Polem and Toekoe Moeda Baid were not made, and the 1878 inval (raid) of Habib Abdoel Rachman would expose the failure of the conciliation policy.

Medical evacuation (30 June 1877) and succession by Van der Heijden

Diemont’s governorship ended with his medical evacuation on 30 June 1877. Van Heutsz’s footnote records the succession in a single sentence — the only place in the 1893 tract where Diemont’s departure is dated:

“(1) Hier was intusschen de Generaal Diemont, die 30 Juni 1877 wegens ziekte geevacueerd werd, eerst tijdelijk en later definitief in het bestuur vervangen door kolonel K. v. d. Heijden.” — Here meanwhile the Generaal Diemont, who was evacuated on 30 June 1877 because of illness, was first temporarily and later definitively replaced in the administration by colonel K. v. d. Heijden.

The succession was at first tijdelijk (temporary) and only later definitief (definitive). The new Governor — kolonel K. van der Heijden, the future conqueror of the XXII Moekims and XXVI Moekims — would inherit, with the office, the verzoeningspolitiek that Diemont had been sent to execute and the Pel plan’s coastal line that Diemont had substantially completed. Diemont’s seven months as Governor had carried out the armed coercion of the east coast and finished the coastal closure of Groot-Atjeh; he left the office before either policy could be tested against the resistance of the Sagi federations.

Sources

De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 79-85.

Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 322. De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapter V, “Periode onder de generaals Wiggers van Kerchem en Diemont, van Maart 1876 tot Juni 1877.” OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-101-De_Atjeh_oorlog_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 22–27.

Source

Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 322.

De onderwerping van Atjeh, door J. B. van Heutsz, Majoor der Infanterie, gewezen Chef van den Staf in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders van Cleef; Batavia: G. Kolff en Co., 1893, esp. pp. 10, 14–15, 18. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-107-De_onderwerping_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.

tags	person, dutch, colonial, military, general, bevelhebber, aceh-war, atjeh, governor, 19th-century, 1876, 1877, commander
aliases	Diemont, bevelhebber Diemont, A. J. E. Diemont, Major-general Diemont, General Diemont, Kolonel Diemont

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